


The Dream From Rome

by ideserveyou



Category: Arthur of the Britons
Genre: Angst, Dreams, Fairy Tales, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-05
Updated: 2011-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-21 01:36:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideserveyou/pseuds/ideserveyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur has a nightmare brought on by fairy tales and too much mead</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dream From Rome

It had been a long, hard day’s ride for all of them: Arthur coming home over the hills from Cornwall, Llud and Kai scouting the valley along by the river to the north.

Kai shivered, rubbing his hands in the welcome warmth of the Longhouse fire. ‘I can’t remember ever being so cold,’ he said, and reached out to take the mead cup Llud was offering him.

‘It’s always cold in the valley,’ Llud said, sitting down in his accustomed place with a grunt of pleasure. ‘Sun doesn’t reach it in winter, and the wind whistles through between the hills. A person could freeze to death out there – wander all night and not find shelter, then get too cold to shiver, and fall down and die.’

‘Really?’ Arthur asked, nudging Kai up the bench a little.

Llud nodded. ‘I saw it happen once. A young woman, wrapped in a long black cloak. I was out riding with your father, checking the same boundary Kai and I rode today. We saw her in the distance, and then we saw her fall. We didn’t get to her in time to save her life. Never found out who she was.’

 

‘It wasn’t much warmer up on the hills,’ Arthur said. ‘But someone must have been up there recently. I passed the summoning oak and noticed there were a couple of new bits of blue cloth tied in the branches. They fluttered and spooked the horse.’

‘Summoning?’ Kai said, curiously.

‘Didn’t I ever tell you that story?’ Llud weighed his mead cup in his good hand. Arthur took the hint and reached out the jug to refill Llud’s drink.

‘You tell so many stories, Llud,’ Kai said. ‘Which one is this?’

‘Don’t be disrespectful of our father’s great age and wisdom, brother of mine,’ Arthur chided him, putting down the mead pitcher and surreptitiously sliding an arm around Kai’s waist under his cloak.

‘Nor you neither, be you our chieftain or no,’ Llud replied with mock-severity.

‘My humble apologies,’ Arthur laughed. ‘Now, please enlighten my right-hand man.’ His own right hand meanwhile was quietly working up Kai’s ribcage inside his tunic; Kai quivered in response, and felt his heartbeat quickening under the skin…

 

‘There is a belief in these parts,’ Llud said, ‘that the old oak on the summit of the west hill has the power to summon you back to itself, if you leave a part of something belonging to you as an offering there. The commonest way is to tear a scrap of cloth from a garment and tie it to a branch. Sometimes a link from a chain, or a clipping from a coin, will be hammered into the bark – but they’re more likely to be stolen, and then the charm will no longer work.’

Kai was intrigued, despite the distracting movements of Arthur’s fingers around one stiffening nipple. ‘No, I’d never heard that one. So if you had to go away from this village, and left a rag tied to this tree, you’d know you weren’t leaving forever?’

‘That's right,’ Llud said. ‘One day the charm would draw you back.’

 

‘Magic,’ Kai mused. ‘It’s like a story in one of your books, Arthur.’

‘There are many stories about magic in my books,’ Arthur agreed. ‘But not many about everyday things…’

‘You mean like mud, and rain, and small villages, and huts like ours?’ Kai gestured around the thatched longhouse, at the damp cloaks flung over the wooden benches, the three pairs of muddy boots steaming gently in the warmth of the fire...

Arthur laughed. ‘Exactly. In tales in books the sun always shines, and nobody gets wet or dirty, and they live in grand cities in exotic lands across the sea, and the hero is helped by the gods and then marries the beautiful princess…’

‘A princess from a fine palace...’ Kai cradled his mead thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what such a one would make of us.’

Llud snorted. ‘Not much chance we’ll ever find out. The only princess we know is Rowena, and she doesn’t exactly live in a fine palace.’

Kai chuckled. ‘And she already knows precisely what to make of us.’ He grinned slyly at Arthur. ‘Isn’t that right, little brother?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Arthur took his hand out of Kai’s shirt, sat up very straight and gazed into the flames.

Llud began to hum a wedding-song under his breath; Kai collapsed in giggles as Arthur struggled to maintain his dignity.

‘We’ll have to build ourselves another hut, Llud. Arthur and his princess bride will be needing this one…’ Kai stood behind Arthur, pretending to crown him with a nuptial wreath.

Arthur got up and scragged him, but Kai swiftly stuck out a foot, and next moment Arthur was in a heap on the floor.

‘Come on, you two,’ Llud said. ‘Stop behaving like savages. Remember what the Romans taught you about dignity, Arthur.’

Kai looked at Arthur as he scrambled to his feet: breathless, dusty and with straw in his hair.

Completely undignified.

And utterly beautiful.

They caught each other’s eye, and started to laugh again.

 

‘Who needs a princess, anyway?’ Arthur muttered quietly into Kai’s ear as they bade Llud goodnight and went into the bedchamber.

 

But that night Arthur dreamed…

 

He dreamed of a beautiful princess, proud and sophisticated, rescued from freezing and brought to live among them.

He was teaching her their ways, showing her the best that his beloved land had to offer.

He dreamed of galloping over the hills, with her by his side; of taking her in his arms.

 

A scrap of blue cloth, caught on the summoning tree; a cloud of fragrant hair in his face.

A surge of love, sweeping him off his feet.

He dreamed that he was to marry his princess, and everyone was happy.

Llud smiling; Kai in a green shirt and wearing a ring on his finger; strangers at the longhouse table, guests from across the sea.

 

They are Romans, and they live in fine palaces, Llud said. They will expect you to be dignified, as befits a Celtic chieftain.

 

A chill draught through the open door.

She was asking him to choose between her and his people; his fate closed around him, inexorable. He felt bitterly angry, but whether at the gods or at the woman, he did not know.

And then she rode away.

 

Llud had sent Arthur out of the village to find something and bring it back.

He was galloping over the hills again, searching, searching…

A scrap of sky-blue cloth in the oak branches, and a terrible sadness…

 

He cried out, but it made no sound. In the distance he could hear a voice calling faintly ‘Arthur…’

 

He woke to realise it was Kai’s voice.

‘What were you whimpering about?’ Kai asked.

He rolled on his side to put an arm over Arthur in reassurance.

Arthur pressed himself gratefully against Kai’s warm naked chest, still in the grip of the dream’s sadness.

‘Well, what was it? Monsters, or gigantic Saxons? Or did you dream I’d put a spider in your mead again?’ Kai ruffled Arthur’s hair affectionately.

‘I thought I’d lost you,’ Arthur said.

And he told him of the dream, or as much of it as he could remember.

 

Kai laughed and laughed. ‘What a story,’ he said. ‘Better than one of Llud’s. As if any of that could ever happen…’

‘I should have known it was a dream,’ Arthur said. ‘I was going to marry her, but it couldn’t have been real, because you were happy about it.’

Kai snorted. ‘As if I’d ever let some fancy Roman princess take you away from me… and I’ll wager Rowena would have something to say on her own account, too. Now, go back to sleep. I’ll take care of you.’

Arthur settled himself more comfortably against Kai, and heaved a contented sigh.

‘No more calling out for lost princesses, please,’ Kai said. ‘I need my sleep.’

 

‘Not lost princesses,’ Arthur said in a small voice. ‘Lost you.’

‘Mmm?’ Kai’s voice was a sleepy, puzzled murmur.

‘It was you I was calling for,’ said Arthur. ‘That second scrap of cloth – it was torn from your blue shirt…’

‘Our blue shirt.’ Kai chuckled. Then he hugged Arthur, hard. ‘You fool. It was in the oak tree, and you know what that means.’ Suddenly serious, he rolled Arthur onto his back and kissed him fiercely. ‘It means that even if I should leave your side, you don’t need to gallop over the hills searching for me. You know I’ll always come back.’

He kissed Arthur again, his hair falling over Arthur’s face in a cloud, clean-smelling and silky. Then he reached a hand down to caress Arthur’s belly; kneeled astride him and trailed lips and tongue down his midline, nuzzling down into his groin, blowing gently into the soft hairs around his cock. Arthur arched his back luxuriously, already half-hard, feeling Kai’s warm breath on his skin.

‘More?’ Kai asked, and without waiting for an answer he began stroking Arthur’s curled shaft with a fingertip, drawing it out straight.

‘I thought you said you needed your sleep,’ Arthur said, gasping a little as Kai mouthed his balls.

‘Mmm – hmmm.’ Kai looked up through his tousled blond hair, and grinned wickedly. ‘I did. But I need you more. And I can’t do this in my sleep… nor can I imagine anything I’d rather be doing... ’

 

‘No,’ Arthur said, ‘neither can I.’

He surrendered joyfully to the astonishing, magical sensation of Kai’s mouth caressing his prick.

‘Not even in my wildest dreams.’

**Author's Note:**

> See, I knew there had to be an explanation for this aberration of an episode! And of course what really happens now is that Kai and Arthur get married and live happily ever after...


End file.
